Finally, the last chapter turns its focus onto the two kids, the conflicted Minato and the often bullied Yori, with the young duo-around tween-aged-building a sweet friendship, possibly something more, during their wild rural excursions and a card game they invented. We also get a chance to spend more time with Minato’s friend and classmate Yori (Hiiragi Hinata), becoming acutely aware of his single abusive father with a drinking problem. The second segment Kore-eda (thankfully) doesn’t bother formally announcing with a title card follows Hori’s perspective, a responsible teacher acting with protective instincts who might be the victim of a misunderstanding. Adding to the enigma is Minato’s strange acts: turning up with ashes in his lunchbox (is he involved with the fire?), cutting his hair for no reason and going as far as jumping out of his mother’s moving car. Like a robotic customer service rep who’s been trained to give only the most stock answers, the board collectively apologizes with no sincerity or meaning. ![]() Elsewhere, a fire believed to be the result of an arson attack has broken out, the flames of which the mother and son watch from afar. We learn that Minato’s dad passed away, but the mother and son are still embracing his soul with heartwarmingly small gestures, like celebrating his birthday at the altar they’ve fashioned at home. In its first segment, the film largely follows Saori (Sakura Ando), a single mother living in a small Japanese town with her son, Minato (Soya Kurokawa). Not that “Monster” isn’t also about all of the aforesaid topics. (You’ve been warned.) Suffice it to say that just when you think you’ve settled in for a tale of school bullying, consequence culture, emotional development and familial grief, you suddenly find yourself inside a yarn closer to Lukas Dhont’s Oscar nominated “Close.” Though, in all honesty, unlike “Rashomon” or a Farhadi film like “A Separation,” his searching exercise sometimes becomes a trying one that you might lose your patience for, especially once “Monster” pulls the rug out from under the viewer with a narrative curveball that arrives way too late in the script.īecause that curveball is very much a part of the story’s premise, it’s quite challenging to write about this film in a meaningful way without spoiling it in some sense. Kore-eda navigates this film with a similar attitude. ![]() Johnny Depp in Cannes: ‘What You’ve Been Reading About Me Is Fantastically, Horrifically Written Fiction’
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